Rutgers Back In The Coaches & AP Polls

[Tango Two]

NCAA Men’s College Basketball Coaches Poll | USA Today Sports

Weekly results from the USA TODAY Sports NCAA Men’s College Basketball coaches poll, conducted weekly using a panel of head coaches at Division I schools.

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NCAA College Basketball Rankings: AP Top 25 Basketball Poll

The official page for the AP Top 25 men's college basketball poll. Keep up to date and view the latest NCAA men's basketball ranking updates each week for the 2025-26 season.

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[RU Mike73]

LOL 2 votes and 1 vote

 

[jordkap]

Kinda odd we have only 1 vote in the top 25 in the AP. 4/6 of our losses are to top 18 teams. The other 2 are on the road vs Penn State and Michigan State who have talent, but are erratic. Multiple top 25 wins too

 

[goru7]

Actually surprised as well Thought we would get 25-50 votes at least and there is no one between 20-25 that we are not better than or at least equal to. Looks like the coaches poll and the media to an extent are not giving the BiG 10 the respect that the top conference in the country deserves. We lost at home to Iowa, Ohio State, and Wisconsin, teams that are 8/8 ; 7/9 and 19/20 and that seems to hurt us , combined with road losses to MSU and Penn State. Penn State is getting no national love despite their high metrics in Kenpom and some of their wins., which seems to really hurt us. Our injuries have not been factored in as well. If we continue to play defense and rebound and start fast , we will be well inside the rankings again

 

[bac2therac]

We don't deserve a ranking...we lost FIVE in a row looking horrible. The last 2 wins are against lessers in the league..we had slipped to 7-6. Tough to recover from that. Win the next 3 and we will be ranked..stop worrying about rankings

 

[fluoxetine]

I honestly think we should be ranked (at the very bottom of T25) right now, but the non-elite portion of the Big Ten is being disrespected in the polls here.

Personally think:
Michigan #3 (#4/#4 in polls)
Iowa #6 (#8/#8)
Illinois #7 (#12/#13)
Ohio St #9 (#7/#9)
Wisconsin #14 (#19/#20)
Purdue #17 (#24/#"26")
Rutgers #23 (#"43"/#"40")
Minnesota #24 (#"29"/#"26")

Really the whole conference is being disrespected except for Ohio State.

 

[fluoxetine]

We don't deserve a ranking...we lost FIVE in a row looking horrible. The last 2 wins are against lessers in the league..we had slipped to 7-6. Tough to recover from that. Win the next 3 and we will be ranked..stop worrying about rankings

We do, at least if you consider the season as a whole not considering order.

If you want to argue not ranking us because recent performance is worse than average performance, I guess. But I honestly think polls should represent the whole season equally.

Sure we lost 5 straight, but of our 6 losses only Michigan St/Penn St are unranked. And we've beaten Illinois and Purdue and the Maryland and Indiana wins are also Q1.

 

[knight82]

We don't deserve a ranking...we lost FIVE in a row looking horrible. The last 2 wins are against lessers in the league..we had slipped to 7-6. Tough to recover from that. Win the next 3 and we will be ranked..stop worrying about rankings

I worry about rankings in the sense that, as Steven Bardo says, these guys start believing their press clippings. We are much better when we are hungry and humbled

 

[bac2therac]

I honestly think we should be ranked (at the very bottom of T25) right now, but the non-elite portion of the Big Ten is being disrespected in the polls here.

Personally think:
Michigan #3 (#4/#4 in polls)
Iowa #6 (#8/#8)
Illinois #7 (#12/#13)
Ohio St #9 (#7/#9)
Wisconsin #14 (#19/#20)
Purdue #17 (#24/#"26")
Rutgers #23 (#"43"/#"40")
Minnesota #24 (#"29"/#"26")

Really the whole conference is being disrespected except for Ohio State.

disagree,,,,Illinois has 5 losses, pretty reasonable to be 12th ranked, ditto for Wisconsin at 19 who has lost a few gams of late. We have 3 top 10 schools as we should

Purdue just entered with 6 losses.

i dont get your argument at all

 

[bac2therac]

We do, at least if you consider the season as a whole not considering order.

If you want to argue not ranking us because recent performance is worse than average performance, I guess. But I honestly think polls should represent the whole season equally.

Sure we lost 5 straight, but of our 6 losses only Michigan St/Penn St are unranked. And we've beaten Illinois and Purdue and the Maryland and Indiana wins are also Q1.

we were 7-6 and looking like garbage getting blown out by a not so good MSU, 2x by Ohio State and lets be real Penn State isnt that good despite beating us and Wisconsin. Our latest 3 wins are nice but they are not head turners, likely wins over bottom half of the league schools.

 

[PiscatawayMike]

Andy Katz has confidence in RU again. He has us back in his Power 36 ranking...

https://www.ncaa.com/news/ncaa/arti...&utm_source=2-1-newsletter&utm_content=link-1

 

[RU72]

There is no scenario in which Rutgers should be ranked. I also think that the Big Ten is over ranked. I don't see Illinois over Virginia,nor Purdue over Drake for openers. Is there a legitimate National Champion in the conference? Maybe Michigan but that remains a stretch. They have not played that rigorous of a schedule to date and are relatively untested. The league is very balanced in the vast middle,but again not that top heavy.

 

[fluoxetine]

There is no scenario in which Rutgers should be ranked. I also think that the Big Ten is over ranked. I don't see Illinois over Virginia,nor Purdue over Drake for openers. Is there a legitimate National Champion in the conference? Maybe Michigan but that remains a stretch. They have not played that rigorous of a schedule to date and are relatively untested. The league is very balanced in the vast middle,but again not that top heavy.

You are incredibly wrong.

 

[Shell21]

There is no scenario in which Rutgers should be ranked. I also think that the Big Ten is over ranked. I don't see Illinois over Virginia,nor Purdue over Drake for openers. Is there a legitimate National Champion in the conference? Maybe Michigan but that remains a stretch. They have not played that rigorous of a schedule to date and are relatively untested. The league is very balanced in the vast middle,but again not that top heavy.

Virginia and drake have no quality wins . Virginia’s best win is Clemson who is horrific right now. Drake hasn’t beaten anyone of substance either . Depends if you take beating people seriously when you rank teams .

 

[knight82]

There is no scenario in which Rutgers should be ranked. I also think that the Big Ten is over ranked. I don't see Illinois over Virginia,nor Purdue over Drake for openers. Is there a legitimate National Champion in the conference? Maybe Michigan but that remains a stretch. They have not played that rigorous of a schedule to date and are relatively untested. The league is very balanced in the vast middle,but again not that top heavy.

I think a number of Big Ten teams are capable of getting hot for six games in March.

 

[zebnatto]

Sorry, don't see us as a top 25 team right now. We've only got MN this week, don't think a win puts us in (don't think we'd deserve it). Following week if my calendar is correct is Iowa and Northwestern. I think we need to go 3-0 (or maybe an L to MN and Ws over other two) to earn our way back in.

 

[jerzeyguy]

Handle Minnesota & beat Iowa on the road - then we can talk top 25

 

[ru66]

There is no scenario in which Rutgers should be ranked. I also think that the Big Ten is over ranked. I don't see Illinois over Virginia,nor Purdue over Drake for openers. Is there a legitimate National Champion in the conference? Maybe Michigan but that remains a stretch. They have not played that rigorous of a schedule to date and are relatively untested. The league is very balanced in the vast middle,but again not that top heavy.

Self haters

 

[fluoxetine]

People (both in this thread and voting on the polls) do not understand how to properly account for strength of schedule. We have played one of top 10 toughest in the country.

 

[brad1218]

Iowa and Michigan are as good as anyone on the country. Illinois could make a run and win it as well.

 

[fluoxetine]

Again I'm not suggesting we should be top 15 or something, but the entire Big Ten is underranked:

Team	AP Ranking	Average Other Ranking	Bart Ranking	Massey Ranking	Kenpom Ranking	NET Ranking
Michigan	4​	3.25​	4​	3​	3​	3​
Ohio State	7​	10.25​	11​	8​	10​	12​
Iowa	8​	5​	5​	4​	5​	6​
Illinois	12​	6.5​	8​	6​	7​	5​
Wisconsin	19​	14.25​	10​	16​	13​	18​
Purdue	24​	22.25​	31​	10​	24​	24​
Minnesota	29​	39.75​	36​	33​	41​	49​
Rutgers	43​	25.5​	24​	20​	26​	32​
Penn State		28.75​	27​	24​	35​	29​
Indiana		32​	30​	23​	28​	47​
Maryland		44.5​	55​	37​	44​	42​
Michigan State		71.25​	77​	51​	62​	95​
Northwestern		72​	67​	61​	74​	86​
Nebraska		122.25​	98​	104​	123​	164​

 

[WhichReligionIsRight]

LOL 2 votes and 1 vote

There have been decades where we would have been thrilled with one or two votes.

 

[richthedentist]

We don't deserve a ranking...we lost FIVE in a row looking horrible. The last 2 wins are against lessers in the league..we had slipped to 7-6. Tough to recover from that. Win the next 3 and we will be ranked..stop worrying about rankings

Agreed lets just win one game at a time

 

[Colbert17!]

Could care less about polls.
As long as we're one of those 68 teams called on Selection Sunday. That's all that matters.

 

[RUChoppin]

Knocking off Minnesota would help a lot - stretch the win streak to 4, another Quad 1 win, close the gap with them in the human polls, and set up a big rematch vs. Iowa. Just hope Harper can get unstuck and back on track.

 

[Scarlet Shack]

We don't deserve a ranking...we lost FIVE in a row looking horrible. The last 2 wins are against lessers in the league..we had slipped to 7-6. Tough to recover from that. Win the next 3 and we will be ranked..stop worrying about rankings

this...win the next 3...and have a 6 game wining streak, 9-6/13-6, we will scream back into the rankings at number 20 with five games to go

take care of Minnesota first ....

 

[RU72]

Big Ten is the best league. Top to bottom might be the best Big Ten of all-time. Should be 9 bids. But that doesn't mean it isn't overrated. We live in a world of hyperbole. Big Ten is 11-9 against Big East and ACC and no. 3 in conference RPI. It is nearly impossible to truly gauge relative conferences without a true ooc schedule. The people who argue against the Big Ten being the best argue that the league is tremendously balanced with 3 or so really good teams,2 really bad teams and 9 teams who are equally matched.Just making an observation.

 

[ScarletteK80]

The incredible irony of this thread is that it actually exists! Especially for some of the "old timers." Who would of thought we would ever have this debate given what men's BB has looked like the past 30+ years.
Carry on.

 

[RU72]

Cut off for old timer must be Class of 79?

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

Beating Minnesota could get us in depending on what teams in the lower half of the rankings do.

In the unlikely event that Cuse goes 2-0 against UofL and Clemson, I think there’d be a very good chance we’d be ranked in the next ranking with a win Thursday regardless even of what other ranked teams do.

 

[Mr_Twister]

Through February 1, 2021, Sagarin has Rutgers as #23. All criticisms of Sagarin to >/dev/null.

https://www.usatoday.com/sports/ncaab/sagarin/